National Portfolio Success!

Take A Part are THRILLED to be awarded Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisation status for the 2018-2022 investment period. The funding secures our programme of work in Plymouth allowing us to work dedicatedly with communities across the city through to 2022.

Started in Efford in 2006, Take A Part worked with local community members, agencies and organisations to create a specific model of co-commissioning and co-creating with artists that allows embedding of the work in the community while developing skills in fundraising, producing and managing artistic projects in order to deliver legacy. Running alongside this process is an education programme that exposes people to contemporary art practices and galleries, encouraging people that normally do not engage in the arts to explore and become part of the creative ecology of Plymouth. Partner High View School have been both hugely supportive and influential in the development of this strand of work and way of working.

Our 2018-2022 programme will see our flagship Crazy Glue arts programme for families and schools, our Young Creatives curatorial and production training programme for young people and our biennial symposium Social Making delivered in partnership with Plymouth City Council, Plymouth Culture, The History Centre, Visual Art Plymouth and a host of other cultural organisations, schools and agencies in communities.

Take A Part has been noted for working on city wide commissions such as In Praise of Trees with Peter Randall-Page in Ham Woods, Kinterbury Creek bridge with muf architecture/art in Barne Barton, Green Orchestra with Philharmonia Orchestra and Nowhereisland Radio with Situations (city wide) and our Shed On Wheels with Anne Marie Culhane (Efford). Each project that is delivered is about partnership building between local communities, local authority and arts organisations.

Director Kim Wide said, ‘Take A Part CIC are delighted to be welcomed into the National Portfolio by Arts Council England. The funding we will get through to 2022 will allow us to give security to the communities and partners we support to think about long-term engagement and it will also allow us to shape audience engagement initiatives in Plymouth while the cultural offer in the city expands. We love partnership working and are excited with the opportunity to support engagement will bring.’

In addition to the work in Plymouth, Take A Part are being funded from Arts Council England to continue to work with partnership organisations on commissions that widen audience engagement. Currently we are delivering programmes with Borough of Poole Museum (Caro Sea Music), Spacex (Creative Cranbrook), Hardwick Gallery/MEANTIME (Love St Peter’s/Love St Paul’s) and a long term and embedded international commission with Carlow Council and Arts Council Ireland (Take A Part Carlow).

Efford community member and Take A Part founder Kathy Hancock said, ‘I am over the moon that something that we started as an experiment is able to support so many other communities in the city and beyond to be creative and ambitious. Our co-founder Michael Bridgwater [who passed away in November 2016] would be thrilled with this result. ‘

Take A Part will be working with Visual Art Plymouth’s We The People (are the work) and Plymouth Art Weekender to deliver Plain Speaking Tours of the multisite exhibition and bring the Shed On Wheels to the city centre as part of the events this autumn.